Studying philosophy can train your mind, help you reason, and almost certainly enrich your life. But what can you do with a degree? Hear from three philosophy majors who now work in other fields on the value of their degree, the pitfalls in pursuing full-time work in philosophy, and some recommendations on how to navigate the often muddy career waters for philosophers. [More]

While Hoffman's passing is upsetting, I have an overall sense of gratitude and found myself actually envying his accomplishments rather than fixating on his death. He left us something and he used his great skill as an actor to show us something about the world and about ourselves. Few of us, even if we live to a ripe old age, will have either the talent or the opportunity to do what he did. [More]

Philosophy is not just about arguments and debates, and cranky professors with pipes and unkempt mustaches. Philosophy is the key to unlocking the shackles that smother your curiosity, your wonderment, and your sense of self. [More]

This is the fundamental conceptual mistake at play in the collective global consciousness; the mind, whatever it is, does not control the body – it is a shadow of its activity, an afterglow if you will. This is a critical conclusion to draw, because it collapses free will from within by removing the concept of agency altogether. If there is no mental causal power due to the causal closure of the physical, we can never be the conscious authors of our thoughts, and therefore we can never be free. [More]

An article on the evolution of the Professor and the job market from The Chronicle of Higher Education, noting the stratification in academia: “we now have a distended pyramid, with a huge base of people whose primary job is teaching, often entry-level courses; a layer of specialists in particular fields and researchers who may hardly even teach above them; and a thin spire of administrators commanding the peak.” [More]

The data and charts for the PhD placement report have been significantly updated. See here for the specific details. New and updated data is from Northwestern University, Ohio State University, Brown University, and the University of Toronto. [More]

In this report, we rank PhD programs in philosophy according to how well they place schools based on the prestige of their (1) Terminal MA Philosophy program placements, (2) PhD philosophy program placements, (3) US News National University placements, and (4) US News Liberal Arts placements. [More]